In many types of equipment, particularly medical equipment, a health care professional uses an array of instruments to perform delicate procedures, such as surgery, on a patient. These instruments together with certain supplies and consumables are typically placed on a tray located both near the patient and within easy reach of the health care professional. Most people who have ever visited a dentist are familiar with the tray used by a dental hygienist or a dentist when performing either cleaning or more complex dental procedures on teeth. The tray is positioned near the dental patient's mouth so that those items needed to complete a procedure are in easy reach of the health care professional.
Trays such as those used by dentists are also used with other types of equipment to conduct medical procedures such as those conducted in an operating room while a patient may be under anesthesia. One example of such procedures is eye surgery. A medical procedure such as eye surgery requires that the needed instruments, supplies and consumables be placed near the eyes of the patient but also that these instruments, supplies and consumables be within easy reach of the eye surgeon.
During certain types of eye surgery the surgeon typically is positioned over the head of the patient to enable easy access to the eyes of the patient. The surgeon then uses a variety of different instruments, supplies and consumables during the eye surgery procedure. These instruments, supplies and consumables may be placed within easy reach of the surgeon on a stand-alone tray.
In some prior art ophthalmic surgical systems, the trays are supported on separate Mayo stands. Other trays are supported by tray arms whose shoulder mountings are positioned below the side of the surface on which the patient is positioned. Some tray supports may be simply raised and lowered and do not allow for any type of lateral motion.
Accordingly, there remains a need in the art for a tray support system that can be used with a medical device, such as an ophthalmic surgical console, that will allow a tray for instruments, supplies, and consumables to be supported and positioned over the patient and still be within easy reach of a health care professional. The tray support system should be positionable to accommodate patients of all sizes as well as surgeons of all sizes. In addition, the tray support system should be sufficiently movable to be usable by either right handed or left handed health care professionals.